A world away, a teen hockey star deals with war in his homeland
Artur Cholach of the Barrie Colts is chasing his NHL dream while his family deals with the events unfolding in Ukraine. It's a conflict that has many tentacles in the hockey world
When Artur Cholach showed up at the Sadlon Arena for the morning skate Thursday, the first thing Barrie Colts coach-GM Marty Williamson did was summon the 18-year-old defenseman to his office. Williamson wanted to let Cholach know that if there was anything he needed from the team or if he needed to take some time off, the Colts would do anything they could to accommodate him.
You see, Artur Cholach is the only player listed on a Canadian Hockey League roster this season whose home is in Ukraine. He grew up in the western city of Lviv where his family lives, but last season he played for Sokol Kiev in the country’s capital city. He also has represented Ukraine at the past two Division I World Junior Championships. After he was drafted in the sixth round by the Vegas Golden Knights last summer, both he and the Knights decided it would be best for his development to play in North America this season.
Just hours after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine with strikes on military bases, capturing the decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant and sending troops and tanks in multiple directions, there is no longer any doubt that the largest ground war in Europe in decades has begun. With Russian president Vladimir Putin threatening any country that intervenes with “consequences they have never seen,” and with reports from the Ukraine military that 40 soldiers have died so far, there is real and imminent danger in that part of the world.
And under that backdrop, Cholach will take to the ice tonight and try to focus on playing hockey. At 6-foot-4 and 201 pounds, he has acquitted himself well in one of the best developmental leagues in the world, but you’d have to think he will have more on his mind than just hockey when the Colts host the Mississauga Steelheads.
“We’ve been talking all the way through and it’s been a generic, ‘Things are OK,’ but obviously in the past couple of days everything has changed,” Williamson said. “He told me his family is in a pretty safe spot. He told me he was good and that his family is safe. Artur is just a wonderful young guy and we’re all just trying to support him the best we can.”
Coincidentally, the Golden Knights’ director of player development Wil Nichol has been scheduled to go to tonight’s game for the past couple of weeks, but will be able to speak to Cholach after the game and lend the NHL team’s support to its prospect. Williamson said he’ll leave it up to Cholach to decide how to proceed, but said the organization will keep close tabs on his mental health through this. “I just watch CNN like everyone else and it looks horrible,” Williamson said. “I just feel for the young man. These are kids and sometimes they hide some feelings. I think he’s definitely going through some anxiety and stress.”
There has not been a Ukrainian player in the NHL since Alexei Ponikarovsky and Ruslan Fedotenko played in the 2012-13 season, but the hockey world is a very small place and there are few players who aren’t touched by something like this. Conversely, there have been 45 skaters and 10 goalies from Russia who have played at least one game in the NHL this season, ranging from superstars such as Alex Ovechkin and Andrei Vasilevskiy to depth defensemen such as Ilya Lyubushkin. Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Rasmus Sandin was asked Thursday morning about his new defense partner, Lyubushkin, who earned the nickname ‘The Russian Bear’ because of his physical play with the Arizona Coyotes. “He’s a very soft bear,” Sandin said. “Outside (the rink), he’s a very soft bear. He’s just really nice and he’s ready to chat about anything. It’s a great addition for us and I’m just glad that he’s here.”
NHL players, who are loathe at the best of times to speak about anything outside their world, are not about to step out of their lane. Nor should they be expected to. There are calls for one Ovechkin to share his thoughts, but when asked by members of Washington’s media to speak with him Thursday morning, he was not made available, but will likely speak at some point in the coming days. Ovechkin’s wife, children and parents are in Russia and those are very real concerns. But Ovechkin has also been an unabashed supporter of Putin over the years, essentially founding a political platform to support the Russian president called teamputin.ru. “I’ve never made a secret of my attitude toward our president, always openly supporting him,” Ovechkin wrote in an Instagram post over four years ago. “I’m sure there are many of us who support Vladimir Putin! So, let us come together and show everyone a strong and united Russia!”
Ironically, the Capitals are in New York tonight to play the Rangers, whose star left winger Artemi Panarin has been openly critical of Putin in the past. In a 2019 interview, Panarin said of Putin, “The mistake in our society is treating (Putin) like a superhuman. He is a regular person like us, and he is serving us. To be president, you have to be smart and enlightened, but our biggest mistake, among many, is thinking that we have nobody better than (Putin). This is nonsense. How many million people live here? No question there is someone better.”
Not long after Panarin voiced his support for opposition leader Alexei Navalny, he took a month off to deal with the fallout of a Russian report that accused him of assaulting a woman in a Latvian bar 10 years earlier. Panarin and the Rangers denied it ever happened and were corroborated by a number of Panarin’s teammates at the time.
It’s actually easy to understand why Russian players are so hesitant to speak out, given the consequences Panarin suffered, combined with the fact that most of them have loved ones in Russia. Former NHLer Akim Aliu, who spent some of his childhood in Ukraine, did not hold back on his feelings or on his views that Ovechkin must speak up about this.
“I certainly wouldn’t say I’m educated on what’s happening over there,” said Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe. “We have people in our room who would be directly impacted by it, so it’s something to be mindful of and aware of. Sometimes you feel like you’re so far away, but when you have a sport such as ours, these things hit close to home.”
The Minnesota Wild, who are visiting the Leafs Thursday night, were dead-set against speaking about it. Defenseman Jon Merrill said when asked whether he and his teammates were talking about the conflict, “Definitely not as a group, sort of town-hall meeting style,” Merrill said. “But guys are on their phones and it’s on the TV and it’s around.” At which point, the Wild’s media relations specialist said, “We don’t need to talk about that. That’s not their job. Please don’t (ask) because it’s about hockey, not politics.”
Meanwhile, the conflict has had a direct effect on the hockey world. The Ukrainian Superleague, which is the pro hockey league in the country, has suspended operations and Jokerit Helsinki reportedly announced that it is pulling out of the KHL playoffs. The International Ice Hockey Federation, meanwhile, has two upcoming events scheduled for Russia, the 2023 World Championship in St. Petersburg, with the 2023 World Junior Championship slated for Omsk. An email to the IIHF asking about the status of those events was not returned, but it’s hard to believe it would send teenage hockey players to a country that is at war with another country on its border. Citing security and safety issues, the IIHF pulled a portion of the 2021 World Championship from Minsk, Belarus, in January 2021, four months before the tournament.